as january dusks i made time for this to be my first 2026 album. it feels like an immediate, previously unrevealed continuation of the thread of ariadne that leads the way out of the labyrinth of grief that injury reserve's by the time i get to phoenix started some five years ago. and what's outstanding to me is that this comes through not only in ritchie's lyrics but also in parker's mind-bending production. sweeping fields of immaterial strings. blows that sway and break apart. a superlative piece of work and a completion of what i see now as a diptych with what came before it.